62nd of Season of Air, 57th year of the 32nd cycle

Newt slotted the manarium crystal into the runic formation and activated it. The ambient energy grew denser, and Newt started with his first item on the agenda. He created one tendril of fire-aligned mana, letting it drift and sway in the phantom wind, like a jellyfish tentacle in the sea, and at the same time he formed another tendril of earthed energy and let it sink into the stone.

The earth-aligned tendril smacked into a barrier as soon as it tried to pierce the spell formation's floor. It slid off, like caressing glass, and Newt didn't force the issue. The tendril crept along the ground, like a root searching for fertile soil, absorbing the ambient earth-aligned energy along the way.

Newt grew the fire-aligned thread of energy, but it too soon reached the barrier.

I'm sitting in an invisible half-dome. It took merely a split second for Newt to realize what was going on and guess how the complex seal worked. It stops ambient mana from leaving and probably creates an area that resembles a void at its edge, drawing surrounding energy into itself until it hits an equilibrium of sorts.

The concept was very similar to what Dandelion suggested Newt could make to make separate stores of differently aligned mana within his realm. That thought naturally led to the next.

Magma or dual fire-earth? Newt was leaning towards the former. He had inherited Magmin's core, or at least some variation of its dualcore, and he had a realm blueprint to help him sculpt his realm beyond human ability.

The only drawback was that at each step of the way, he had to prove himself a slayer, someone who could fight a fully evolved manabeast that matched his power. Worse, he had to fight the manabeast inside its own realm, where it was at its strongest, and its stamina and energy were infinite. And he had to do so several layers weaker than his opponent.

Magmin would always be at the peak of the realm, just before advancement, with any remaining heart demons powerful enough to survive his attempts to make a perfect realm. But if Newt let himself grow stronger, the surge of energy could push him over the edge of his realm before he fully sculpted it, thus weakening his foundation.

The other path doesn't suffer from this drawback. I could shape my realm, prepare for advancement, and only then fight Magmin once I'm at the verge of breaking through, but at that point, the extra mana isn't really worth the risk.

Besides, deep down, Newt knew this path was the inferior one. The first path would make him a respected slayer over and over again, forcing him to challenge himself and grow stronger with every attempt. The latter would make him someone who would not dare challenge a fully evolved manabeast.

Magmin at his peak was powerful enough to fight the emperor, the strongest human awakened. And with a bit of luck, Newt could inherit that power. Would giving up on the path of magma out of fear form a heart demon?

He supposed it would. After all, it would become an eternal regret, but that was irrelevant. Newt would walk the more difficult path, challenge Magmin's realms when he was at the fifth or sixth layer, and with time, he would raise his clan to an even greater glory than his ancestor.

Well, that decision was easy enough to make. Now, for the task Master gave me, what can I do with tracing? She said there are five uses, and each correct answer would net me a manarium crystal.

Newt first summoned Granite Crust the way he always did, then by using tracing. Tracing was slower, but allowed finer control. It was easier to change the technique's direction, but was that really useful for all techniques?

I guess I'll submit that as one of my answers if I can't think of five others. And is it really slower? The speed at which Granite Crust forms has increased as I've used it and as I grew more proficient. Back when I first started, I had to prepare, but now, I can just will it into being when I see a blow coming. Maybe tracing becomes just as quick after moons of practice?

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Newt summoned a double layer of Granite Crust to cover his hand, focusing on the traces throughout his arm, then started to expand his defensive skill towards the elbow. The main channels of traces sprouted a capillary system, reaching his skin, and giving birth to new layers of Granite Crust.

The work was slow, and Newt felt like a new vascular system spread throughout his body, but after an hour, the network of mana channels covered his body. Thick central veins blazed with energy, bright enough that Newt's mindcore could see them for a fraction of a second before Granite Crust formed and obscured his vision.

What happens if I just constantly circulate a bit of my mana through a closed system of traces?

Newt made a thread going up his arm, into his hand, and back to his heartcore, then started running mana through it. He expected he would see an increase of mana in his flesh, but it was the opposite.

It's drawing the loose energy back into my core. My arm looks like I'm in the second realm, but the rest of me still glows like I'm in the third. Newt just stared at his arm, a deep, focused frown splitting his forehead. He was on the cusp of understanding—.

That's it! This is what the senior mageknights use to look like voids in the ambient mana, but they do it better in some way. That means they are constantly circulating mana through their bodies—

Wait, that means they can release their techniques faster because the mana is already there, their techniques primed and waiting all the time. They just have to form the thin traces—

Why would they form the thin traces? They could have those active too, just a thought away from activating; that would speed everything up a bunch.

Newt's mind jumped from thought to thought, abandoning one train when another, more interesting, appeared.

How would that work with two different elemental energies? Can I run fire and earth through the same trace?

With hardly a thought, Newt sent a surge of fire-attributed energy from his heartcore. Fire flooded the trace which until an instant ago was formed of pure earth, and Newt screamed in pain.

The channel burned, searing his heart. The ambient fire-attributed mana ignited inside him, and something in Newt's chest tore. With wide eyes, he spewed a mouthful of blood, drowning his agonized scream.

He wanted to send a stream of fire-aligned energy towards his feet, to propel himself forward with Salamandra's Flight, but the mere thought of releasing more fire into his body made his head spin.

"Help!" he gurgled, but the chamber was soundproof, isolated from the rest of the world to offer maximum privacy and perfect concentration.

"… if you are doing anything new or risky, do so near the training field, where Lord Elmshade can intervene…" Lady Alabaster's words echoed in Newt's mind. Too late. His lung burned like someone was crushing the breath out of him.

With superhuman effort, Newt threw himself at the door. A mortal material would have exploded into splinters under the force, but the door merely smashed against the wall as a third realm mageknight struck it, the boom echoing down the corridor.

"Help," Newt screamed again, but mere gurgles trickled out of his mouth, along with blood.

The world grew fuzzy, darkness creeping up the edges of his vision, when a door somewhere far away opened with a bang.

"Healer!" A distorted voice hollered from the depths of the abyss. Darkness crept forth, covering half Newt's vision.

A yellow-green blur touched Newt. Water trickled through his body, misting over his organs and extinguishing the fire.

"He charred his lung, and half his heart burst." The speaker paused, his icy hand drawing Newt back from the brink of unconsciousness. "I can keep him stable for a while, but the wound is complex, and there might be problems if I heal him. Summon Lady Goodhunt from the Chamber of Healing."

Newt watched the desk clerk run out the door when his savior spoke. "Listen, kid, I have no idea what mistake you could've made drawing mana to explode your own heart, but I must assure you it's the most spectacular blunder I have seen in this part of the building. And I've been here a while."

Newt looked at the bald man, his face free even of eyebrows. He was grinning at Newt. Coherent thought had trouble forming. The pain sitting on Newt's chest had shrunk from a thundertitan to a mere trihorn, and the spreading heat had stopped, doused by the healer's water-attributed energy.

Newt opened his mouth. He wanted to say something, but only blood left his throat.

"See?" Concern flashed through the baldy's eyes, but he kept grinning, a joking smile that did not reach beyond his lips. "Just stay conscious, and you'll have an exciting story to tell your friends. Seriously, you'll have to tell me later how you managed to burn your heart, lung, and a straight line all the way to your hand. What kind of strange technique were you practicing?"

The healer kept talking disconnected gibberish, or maybe Newt's hazy mind failed to connect the thoughts, but whenever Newt's eyes drooped and started to close, the bald man's words came faster and his voice turned a higher pitch.

"Hey, hey! Do you want the order to learn you fainted from something like this? No master will accept a weakling like that."

Blessedly, another figure appeared above them, blazing with mana, and Newt's consciousness finally gave out.

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